


you said look at me and looked away and you wrote the song I want to play

by allmilhouse



Category: Deception (1946)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, M/M, Past Infidelity, if they'd all stop lying and being jealous they'd be the biggest power throuple but nooo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:00:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26263822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allmilhouse/pseuds/allmilhouse
Summary: Hollenius doesn't want to lose Christine, Christine's afraid of what Hollenius will do, and Karel is caught in between
Relationships: Christine Radcliffe/Alexander Hollenius, Christine Radcliffe/Karel Novak, Karel Novak/Alexander Hollenius
Kudos: 2





	you said look at me and looked away and you wrote the song I want to play

**Author's Note:**

> absolutely did not do the movie justice but oh my god, someone else pls write something for this! the vibes are off! the! chart! title from sick muse by metric. also spoiler for the end of the movie

Hollenius was a man who enjoyed comfort in all its forms, even something as plebeian as the Sunday comics. But oftentimes he found pleasure in cruelty, something that Christine had learned firsthand. He also loved being the smartest man in the room, and subtly letting others figure that out for themselves. 

Christine knew as much, but when Karel came home that night, it was cemented as fact: Hollenius was toying with her now. Karel was raving, absolutely effusing his praise and delight for how his meeting with Hollenius had gone. And she couldn't blame him. Alexander could be charming when he felt like it. Those moments were few and far between but certainly worth the wait. 

And Karel had always admired Hollenius. Before the war, when he and Christine were madly in love with both each other and music, he would talk often about how Hollenius was his favorite contemporary composer. And to have the undivided attention, and some mild praise from such a genius, almost nothing could compete with that sensation. 

Christine knew that too, and that was why she couldn't blame Karel for falling in love with Hollenius himself. She still felt the pull towards him despite the deep, reawakened love she had found with her first flame. Of course she couldn't be jealous. Karel had more than enough insecurities and suspicions for the two of them. But as he lay in her lap, his eyes twinkling with excitement as he continued to recount Hollenius' exact reaction to his recordings, Christine felt a stab of anger towards her naïve husband. 

______

The great Alexander Hollenius was hiding from her again. She almost couldn't blame him, the way she stormed into his lavish house, her heels clicking sharply on the ornate tile as she marched from room to room, searching for the world's foremost musical genius. 

“Hollenius? Hollenius?” Her voice echoed around the hall as she went from room to room, searching for her elusive former lover in his vast, ostentatious house. 

She finally tracked him down in the dining room, where he was definitely not cowering behind his breakfast. Worst of all, he had the gall to pretend to be surprised at her indignation. 

“My dear Christine, what brings you back so soon? And in such high spirits I-”

“What are you doing to my husband?” she interrupts.

“Your husband? Oh, Karel. Yes, he came over last night and we discussed his career. He's a good man, if a little clueless. A remarkable cellist however." 

"He is a good man, and that's why I think you should stay away from him." She meets his gaze, as level as possible. "Oh Alex, you could do so much for his career, but he's still fragile. He hasn't recovered from the war, and, well I've only just gotten him back. Not to be entirely selfish but I don't want to lose him again." 

"What makes you think you haven't already lost him?" Hollenius says it simply, but there's no denying that great ego that fuels him in all endeavours. The man is confident because he knows he can deliver, and he's smug because he delivers more consistently and thoroughly than the entire postal service. 

Unfortunately he's hit a sore spot, and both he and Christine know it. Her eyes cast downwards in acknowledgement. “I won't pretend that you don't have some effect on him. But I also won’t pretend that your interest in him has nothing to do with your interest in me." 

She turns on him, angry again, and he raises both palms up in a vague gesture of surrender. “Don’t sell your husband's charms short, Mrs Novak. Although I must admit he reminds me of another gifted musician, just returned from Europe, still haunted by the spectre of war. Perhaps I have a type.” He shrugs gracefully, his shoulder shifting slightly under his silk robe. 

“I won’t sit idle while you try to turn Karel against me.”

"Then why don't we all go to dinner?" Hollenius proposes, clapping his hands together so suddenly that Christine jumps in surprise. "Three aficionados of music, all dripping with mutual respect for each other and their work, what could be better?" 

She wants to refuse. She wants to stamp her foot down, as unrefined as it may be, and insist that Hollenius have no more say in her or her husband's life. But she watches him, and sees that conniving look behind the glasses he only wears behind closed doors. She made great strides, both personally and professionally, after getting involved with Hollenius. If there was any chance Karel could achieve the same, she knew she had to take the risk, as dangerous as it may be. 

_____

Karel was temperamental and proud and a little bit clueless. He hadn’t always been this way, but the war had torn into him, picking away until he was a mass of poorly-concealed nerves, perpetually on the verge of lashing out or falling apart entirely. Christine loved him the way she always had, a little too fondly, only now with a protective slant. She wanted to bundle him up and protect him from the evils of this world, and instead she found herself dressing and delivering Karel to one of the more familiar devils.

“Stop fussing,” she admonished, straightening his tie for the third time. 

“It’s fine,” he tutted, but she kept straightening and adjusting until she saw a shadow approach the front door. 

“Hollenius won’t think so.”

_____

Christine hadn’t experienced such lonely, stressful nights since she was first separated from Karel. The long, late hours preyed on her nerves almost as much as the threat of what Hollenius could say or do. It wouldn’t take much to shatter Karel’s fledgling career just as soon as it was starting, and a loss that great was something her poor husband wouldn’t be able to overcome easily. 

On the other hand, Karel had been suspicious about Hollenius from the start, and the more time they spent together, the likelier it was that he might put two and two together and come up with the truth behind the four years Christine had spent as slightly more than a platonic protegée.

Night after night she waited up late for Karel, and night after night he returned in a foul mood, slamming doors and cursing Hollenius for his capriciousness. She could almost appreciate the irony of being in love with two exacting musicians, whose different forms of expressing their pride and anger would ensure her destruction either way. 

She didn’t remember Karel having such a physicality to him, stalking from room to room, voice loud with unrestrained anger. But then, she supposes, she had to learn it somewhere. 

It would solve all her problems if Karel didn’t perform the concerto, and they left Hollenius behind to focus on their own happiness. But when she suggested that very thing, Karel looked at her as if she was mad. 

“You of all people should understand,” he said, before turning out the light and leaving her alone in the dark. 

_____

The performance was beautiful, at least what she heard of it was. It reminded her of that first night, stumbling upon the newspaper announcement and rushing off to the small college where the yet-to-be-discovered Karel Novak was performing to a sold out crowd of 250. 

Tonight the young cellist was playing to two thousand of high society’s finest aficionados, minus two. Christine was dashing up the steps to her seat in the balcony, regretfully late, and Alexander Hollenius was lying dead on his own staircase, not to be found until his servant returned in the morning. 

The concerto was absolutely perfect- it had been when Hollenius had first started writing it over a year ago, frustrated fingers tapping at the piano while Christine watched him adoringly from his bed. He hadn’t found sufficient inspiration to finish it until the night of her wedding- the first night he met Karel, and left her apartment in a huff. 

And he had declared Karel the only person fit to play it, no matter what Christine suspected about the understudy. But he would never hear it now, and Christine had one final secret about Hollenius that she had to conceal from Karel, who played on, oblivious once more.


End file.
